My invention concerns lightweight athletic footwear particularly adapted to non-contact sports or light-contact sports. Thus, a primary design criteria of the footwear is that it enables the wearer to optimize the agility of his feet by providing selective and independent reinforcement to the muscles of the feet without adding undue weight or restriction. Of somewhat lesser significance is the provision of protection to the wearer against natural obstacles including those posed by surface conditions and other players.
Historically, athletic footwear has reflected the designers intention to protect the wearer's foot from nature and his adversary. Thus, a commonality of design and a similarity of construction features have in the past characterized athletic footwear independent of the nature of the sport for which its use was intended. Only in the last few decades has there been a distinct trend toward tailoring athletic footwear to suit the conditions of the sport for which the shoe was to be worn. Nevertheless, the conventional approach is still to start with the basic "protective" shoe construction and modify it to better meet the demands of a particular sport.
In contrast, my approach to the design of athletic footwear for non-contact or light-contact sports has been to maximize agility and maneuverability while at the same time providing the necessary protection to the user's foot which he might naturally be exposed to while engaging in such activity. This novel approach to footwear design reflects itself principally in the "upper" portions of the footwear with only minor modifications being made to the design of a conventional sole.